citizen kane
The classic masterpiece, Citizen Kane (1941), is probably the world's most famous and highly rated film, with its many remarkable scenes, cinematic and narrative techniques and innovations. The director, star, and producer were all the same individual - Orson Welles (in his film debut at age 25), who collaborated with Herman J. Mankiewicz on the script and with Gregg Toland as cinematographer. Within the maze of its own aesthetic, Citizen Kane develops two interesting themes. The first concerns the debasement of the private personality of the public figure, and the second deals with the crushing weight of materialism. Taken together, these two themes comprise the bitter irony of an American success story that ends in futile nostalgia, loneliness, and death. The fact that the personal theme is developed verbally through the characters while the materialistic theme is developed visually, creating a distinctive stylistic counterpoint. It is against the counterpoint that the theme!s unfold within the structure of a mystery story. Its theme is told from several perspectives by several different characters and is thought provoking. The tragic story is how a millionaire newspaperman, who idealistically mad
------------------------------------------------------------------------ e reinforces the unnatural tension of the central character's driving, joyless ambition. One brilliant use of sound montage, is when Kane and his wife are arguing in a tent surrounded by hundreds of Kane's guests. A shrill scream punctuates the argument with a persistent, sensual rhythm. It is clear that some sexual outrage is being committed. When the parakeet screams at the appearance of Kane, the sound linkage in tone but not in time, further dehumanizes Kane's environment. In the baroque world that he had created, Kane is isolated from even the most dubious form of humanity. In all respects, the techniques used in Citizen Kane are a reflection and projection of the inhuman quality of its protagonist. In the way the techniques are used to distort and magnify the characters in the film, we understand what the film is trying to get across. Citizen Kane represents an intense vision of American life, a life in which materialistic elements are distorted and magnified at the expe! luminous close-ups in which faces are detached from their backgrounds. When characters move across rooms, the floors and ceilings move with them. This technique which is highly unusual, tends to dehumanize characters by reducing them to fixed ornaments in a shifting architecture. The choice of camera position was an important factor in getting across artistic and psychological effects. To the photograph a person or object from below, distorts that object. It tends to elongate a person, making him seem more important. It also intimidates the audience, since it is in the inferior position of looking up. The scene gives an added power to the person on the screen. Kane is indeed bloated
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Approximate Word count = 1174
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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